Mass riots break out after girl, seven, is kidnapped by motorcyclist and raped in ordeal lasting two hours in India
- Angry crowds smashed windows in the state’s capital Rajasthan on Tuesday
- It comes after a girl, 7, was kidnapped and raped by a man on a motorcycle
- Crowds gathered outside the hospital, shortly after she was found and treated causing police to deploy extra officers to calm and control protesters
Rioters have torched more than 160 cars amid mass unrest in Jaipur, India last night as they demanded the arrest of a man who kidnapped and raped a seven-year-old girl.
Angry crowds smashed windows in the state’s capital Rajasthan, the government shut down the internet and arrested 16 people in an attempt to halter the riots.
Jaipur Police Commissioner Anand Srivastava said several officers had been injured in the chaos, and that those who ‘spread rumours’ in order to cause public discontent would face action.
It comes as shocking CCTV footage shows the girl being abducted on the back of a motorcycle.
Rioters have torched more than 160 cars amid mass unrest in Jaipur, India last night as they demanded the arrest of a man who kidnapped and raped a seven-year-old girl. Grab shows the CCTV footage of the girl being abucted
Angry crowds smashed windows in the state’s capital Rajasthan, the government shut down the internet and arrested 16 people in an attempt to halter the riots. Pictured: A previous riot in Jaipur in 2013
‘Some people had gathered in the area to protest. When the police tried to disperse the crowd, they started pelting stones. Some vehicles were damaged and a few police officers were also injured. We have registered a case and arrested 16 people’ he told reporters.
Speaking of the crime which sparked the riots, he said: ‘ ‘The culprit lured the girl from near her house into a vehicle around 8pm yesterday and raped her.
‘After two hours, he dropped her at the same spot from where she was picked up’.
The culprit abducting the girl by motorcycle and told her he was family friend, local media reports.
On Monday, the victim was found outside her house bleeding profusely with injuries on her forehead.
Jaipur Police Commissioner Anand Srivastava said several officers had been injured in the chaos, and that those who ‘spread rumours’ in order to cause public discontent would face action. Pictured: police patrolling the street in 2017 after a curfew was imposed in Jaipur
She was taken to hospital and treated for minor wounds and abrasions on her genitals.
Soon after she was found, crowds gathered outside the hospital, causing police to deploy extra officers to calm and control protesters.
Rioters soon surrounded the police station, and are alleged to have thrown rocks at officers.
State transport Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyavas, who visited the seven-year-old in the hospital, said it was a ‘heinous crime’ and the perpetrator ‘should be hanged’.
Rioters soon surrounded the police station, and are alleged to have thrown rocks at officers. Pictured: Students in Kashmir throwing rocks at the police following a similar attack in May
He added that police were dealing with the investigation and the public should not take the case into their own hands.
‘We all are trying to arrest the accused soon. There is just no space for people committing such crimes in our society,’ he said.
Last month, police and government officials were found guilty in a 2018 rape and murder in Kashua, in Kashmiri Indian, and in May, a sexual abuse case involving a three-year-old lead to riots against the police.